All documents cited herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety.
The modification of catalyst supports has conventionally been carried out using organic solvents, as described in, for example, Bouh et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc, 121 (1999) 7201, Bu et al., Advanced Materials Research, 194 (2011) 1807 and US patent application US 2010/0024874 A1. In the modern era, there is a continual push towards more environmentally friendly, or “greener”, technologies. This push has caused considerable interest in water-based processes in the catalyst manufacturing industry. Furthermore, the use of aqueous methods, compared to non-aqueous methods, often results in a lowering of manufacturing costs.
Therefore, there is a need for further aqueous methods for the preparation of modified catalyst supports.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,510,994 discloses a method of loading an oxide of titanium onto a support in film form in an amount of from 0.5 to 10% through impregnation with an aqueous solution containing compounds which act as titanium sources.
Jeung et al., J. Chem. Soc. Faraday Trans., 91 (1995) 953 discloses modifying silica with chromium using a standard incipient wetness method. Oh et al., Powder Tech., 204 (2010) 154 discloses modifying silica with manganese using a standard incipient wetness method. Meijers et al., Applied Catalysis, 70 (1991) discloses impregnating a support with zirconium using an alkoxide method.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved method for the preparation of a modified catalyst support.
A further object of the present invention is to provide improved modified catalyst supports, catalyst precursors and catalysts.